


In the Practice Room

by puff22_2001



Series: BSSM: University [4]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Adulthood, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Leaving Home, Music, Parent-Child Relationship, Rei's grandpa raised her from like six so he's her dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24674884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puff22_2001/pseuds/puff22_2001
Summary: Rei is torn between her duty and her home. Will she be able to choose the right path?
Relationships: Hino Rei & Hino Rei's Grandpa, Hino Rei/Kumada Yuuichirou (mentioned), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: BSSM: University [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781515
Kudos: 3





	In the Practice Room

Rei sat at the piano, lost in thought. She tapped out a tune on auto-pilot; had anyone heard it they would have called it melancholy. The young woman looked at nothing, the depths of her violet eyes like the smoke of a raging forest fire.

“There you are!” The old man entered and sat solidly on the chair near to the piano bench. Rei didn’t react, having already sensed her grandfather before he’d even approached the door. Her powers grew stronger every single day. That scared her.

“It’s a beautiful campus.” Grandpa said cordially as he looked around the small practice room. Rei humphed and stopped playing.

“It’s not as nice as the shrine.”

Grandpa laughed, his wrinkled old face moon-round and kind. “Well, not every place has such a diligent groundskeeper.”

“Yuuichiro will probably burn the shrine down when I’m gone.” Rei said with acid in her voice, to hide the genuine fear.

“I managed to survive for over fifty years before you, my dear, and with worse apprentices than Yuuichiro.” Grandpa said with dignity. Rei sighed and continued to look at the wall. Grandpa smiled warmly and continued. “The shrine will still stand when you come home.”

“What if I don’t, though?” Rei asked, not looking her grandfather in the eye. “What if I don’t come home?”

Grandpa took her hand from the keys, and gently turned her face to his own with his other. Rei had to look down to eye level with the old man, and it only made her feel more lost.

“Rei, I never expected you to stay at the shrine. You were meant for bigger things.”

Grandpa laughed then, letting go of Rei’s chin but keeping her hand in his own. “Goodness! When you were just a mite, you wanted to be president of the United States, even after I explained that you had to be an American citizen for that.”

“I’m surprised that I didn’t want to be Empress of Japan.”

“You assured me that you could be both.” Grandpa sighed himself then, a sound like the wind through the maples on the shrine grounds; soft and worn.

“No matter what happens, you’ll always have a place at the shrine. But I can be happy with calls and visits.”

“What if I don’t?” Rei asked again. Looking deeply into her grandfather’s eyes, Rei tried to tell him all of the things she never had before.

'What if forget to call? To write? What if another enemy attacks and I die here and you never see me again?'

Grandpa took a moment to return Rei’s look, just as deep and intense. The wrinkles on his face nearly hid his eyes, but they were the same deep violet as Rei’s. As her mother’s, his child’s. And they shared the Sight. Even if they never admitted it (too many dangerous secrets to share), they were one and the same.

“You’re not your father.” Grandpa said with conviction. “You won’t just disappear.”

“But what if,”

“And if you did,” Grandpa continued, firmly steamrolling Rei’s fear, “I know that you’d have a good reason. You’re meant for better things and you’ll help the world! You’re going to be great, and even if you can’t call or visit, I’ll know that you’re doing your best.”

“I always do my best.” Rei said, stubbornly ignoring the tears gathering in her eyes.

“Exactly! All I want for you is to be happy.” Grandpa tilted his head in question. “Are you?”

Rei didn’t need to think about it. Even with the constant pain and worry, being a sailor soldier was worth it. Being with the girls and saving the world was worth it all.

“Yes.”

Grandpa smiled wider at her answer. “Then you’ll always be in my heart, no matter where you go.”

“I love you, Grandpa.” Rei said softly, even in the privacy of the practice room too prideful to fully admit supposed weakness.

The smile on her grandfather’s face was devotion incarnate. “I love you, too, my dear.” Grandpa laughed suddenly. “Now, if only I could get that apprentice of mine on a similar path, I’d be set!”

“I am so glad he found a girlfriend!” Rei said with a exasperated groan. “He was getting insufferable.”

“She certainly has helped to straighten him out!” Grandpa continued the lighter thread of affectionately insulting his protege, and Rei smiled down at her diminutive grandfather.

Even as she helped to diss her friend, she never let go of her grandfather’s hand.


End file.
